Although, I agree with Archbishop Chaput's recent talk on the
death penalty, what does society do when a murderer murders
while in prison? OR what does society do when supposedly
repentant killers are released from prison and kill again?

Those are questions that always seem to be ignored?

Thanks,

Paul

Answer by Judie Brown on 9/16/2012:

Paul

There is an ongoing debate within the Church, including moral
theologians and
Bishops, regarding the status of the acceptance or rejection of
the death penalty.
It is cases like those you ask about that provoke the debate.

We do know this:

Aborting a child is an intrinsic evil
Capital punishment should be avoid whenever necessary and
should be
unwarranted in a civilized society, but that would mean that
justice is consonant
with the natural law in the culture where the death penalty is
rarely used. That is not the case in a nation like ours that uses
its laws to approve
the direct killing of the innocent in situations like abortion and
euthanasia.

Therefore in the USA at this time any ban on capital punishment
is hypocritical because the law condones the direct killing of
innocent people prior to birth. That is a double standard.

Finally the Church has not defined capital punishment as an
intrinsic evil.